3 Nige­ri­ans, Brazil­ian woman, held with co­caine worth `39cr

In a crack­down on drug ped­dling in Mum­bai, Am­boli po­lice ar­rested four per­sons, in­clud­ing a Brazil­ian woman, and seized 6.5 kgs of co­caine worth Rs38,95,97,600 in And­heri West on Satur­day night.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, on a tip-off, a team, led by in­spec­tor Daya Nayak of Am­boli po­lice, laid a trap in Mau­rya Es­tate and ar­rested four ac­cused. The three ac­cused are from Nige­ria. The ac­cused were on their way to dis­patch the con­sign­ment of the co­caine to Jo­han­nes­burg, South Africa through courier. The ac­cused are Ni­ras Azu­bik Okhowo (35), Si­mon Ago­b­ata (32), Micheal Sun­dae Hop (29), and the Brazil­ian woman, Karle Pinto Ires (41). They resided at Kopar Khairane in Navi Mum­bai. When po­lice raided their house, they find that the co­caine was hid­den in cur­tains and other things.

Notably, the Brazil­ian woman was re­leased re­cently from the By­culla jail, sen­tenced in a sim­i­lar case.

Po­lice re­cov­ered from another a cash bail re­ceipt of Rs80,000. He had been out on a bail. The ac­cused was im­pris­oned un­der the Nar­cotics Drugs and Psy­chotropic Sub­stance (NDPS) Act. The Nige­rian man was ar­rested three years back in a drug deal.

Re­port­edly, the in­volve­ment of courier com­pa­nies in the case is also un­der probe, said po­lice.

Manoj Ku­mar Sharma, Ad­di­tional Com­mis­sioner of Po­lice (West­ern Re­gion), said, “The co­caine was to be sent to South Africa in cur­tains and ac­ces­sories. When raided the house, po­lice seized cur­tains, rings, rib­bons, co­caine plas­tics, ring press ma­chines, other ac­ces­sories and a few pass­ports. Courier com­pa­nies may also be in­volved in the syn­di­cate. Probe is on. It will be too early to es­tab­lish the role and names of the courier com­pa­nies.”

Po­lice said they are ver­i­fy­ing the pass­ports. The ac­cused were booked un­der the NDPS Act and pre­sented be­fore a court on Sun­day. The court re­manded them in po­lice cus­tody for seven days.

The ac­cused were on their way to dis­patch the con­sign­ment of the co­caine weigh­ing 6.5 kgs to Jo­han­nes­burg, South Africa through a courier in And­heri.